Google’s been fighting an uphill battle with their social network, Google+. Despite having a captive audience, many feel like the service isn’t as functional as Facebook or Twitter. Google+ is the new kid in town, and lacks the audience that the other networks built up over time.

In order to keep people using the service, Google needs to be constantly adding new features, and making sure that those features are the best. Facebook’s purchase of Instagram earlier this year caused a big commotion, and many have been waiting for Google to respond. Announcing the purchase of Nik Software, makers of the Snapseed photo editing app, seems to be that response.

Snapseed is an incredibly powerful photo editing tool, and the iOS app has been awarded App of the Year due to its popularity. Integrating the Snapseed toolset into Google+ would create a free, web based photo studio built right into the social network.

Google has done quite a bit in the last few updates to the Google+ apps to focus heavily on image friendly uses. The UI for the apps are built to allow users to quickly scroll through photos, and the service itself has more than a couple of amazing photographers that post to the service every day. The only thing missing from Snapseed in order to make it a direct plug and play service would be support for Android en masse. Currently Snapseed only works on a few high end devices, most notably those with Tegra 2 or Tegra 3 devices like the Nexus 7 .

If the service is integrated quickly across Google’s products, Nik Software will be a welcome addition to Google’s products. Snapseed is far from Nik Software’s only product. The company is a heavyweight in the photography industry with their hands in tools like the Nikon Professional Suite. For now everyone will be waiting to see exactly how Google integrates this company into their organization.